Are Online Degrees as Valuable as Traditional College Diplomas?

Millennials are the first generation to grow up with constant technology and personal computers. That might explain why they see such a value in online education.

A recent poll by Northeastern University showed that 18 to 29 year olds had a more negative view about attending college because of the high cost, and a more positive opinion about online classes than their older counterparts. The survey also showed more than half of the millennials had taken an online course.

Online education is attracting hundreds of thousands of students a year. Perhaps this is why more brick-and-mortar universities are searching for an online identity.

This week Wellesley College announced that it will offer free online classes to anyone with an Internet connection as part of the nonprofit project edX. Earlier this year, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology teamed up to fund and launch the online platform.

More: Harvard and MIT Want to Educate You for Free

Online education was even the talk in Washington this week when a group of panelists convened to discuss Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), which is an open source network like edX. These courses are very much like correspondence classes in the early 20th century.

But there are still those universities that only exist in a virtual world and students pay to attend. Are they as beneficial to students as attending a two- or four-year college?

“It depends at what level and what subject,” says Isabelle Frank, dean of Fordham College of Liberal Studies. “In general, fully online degrees are not valued as highly as degrees from brick-and-mortar institutions. This is because online-only universities do not have the faculty quality and interaction that occurs with full-time faculty and secure positions.”

She says that Fordham has online master programs and some online courses, but the model is “that of a small seminar style class with a lot of faculty feedback and involvement.”

Just like a physical college, a quality online education depends on the institution.

For example, students at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business take online classes and communicate with other students around the world—something students 25 years ago couldn’t have dreamed of doing.

“This affords the opportunity to learn leadership, team-building and managerial skills by solving problems and coordinating efforts for projects through the process of establishing real-time meetings, coordinating time zones and dealing with potential language issues,” Sher Downing, executive director of online academic services at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, said. “This value cannot be mirrored as easily in a traditional classroom, and for many companies with offices located around the world, this is a valuable skill, when the workforce is required to handle these types of situations.”

Downing said that students can save money by taking online classes because they no longer have to commute, live on or near a campus or relocate.

The millennials surveyed by Northeastern University are keen to take online courses. In fact, nine in 10 said online classes should be used as a tool and mixed with other teaching methods. The poll also found that students want flex­i­bility, which is exactly what online colleges offer.

Employers may not yet see an online degree in the same light as a traditional university but that is likely to change in the near future. It may just be that millennials, who don’t want to go in debt for an education like some of their parents did, are just a bit ahead of educators and employers.

Related Stories on TakePart:

• Top Universities Want You to Take Free Online Classes in Your Pajamas

• Military Gives ‘F’ to Online Diplomas

• 2012 List: The Most Expensive Colleges in America

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Suzi Parker is an Arkansas-based political and cultural journalist whose work frequently appears in The Washington Post and The Christian Science Monitor. She is the author of two books. @SuziParker | TakePart.com 

Linux/Open Source News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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How They Pulled Off 'The Impossible'

The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one family survived it -- is reenacted by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible. Watch the video to go behind the scenes...

Video: Tsunami Survivor Petra Nemcova Reacts to Latest Disaster in Japan

In theaters December 21, The Impossible finds Naomi as Maria and Ewan as her husband Henry, who are enjoying their winter vacation in Thailand with their three sons. On the day after Christmas, their relaxing holiday in paradise becomes an exercise in terror and survival when their beachside hotel is pummeled by an extraordinary, unexpected tsunami.

Video: Watch the Trailer for 'The Impossible'

The Impossible tracks just what happens when this close family and tens of thousands of strangers must come together to grapple with the mayhem and aftermath of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.

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Speeding SUV slams into Jeep, which then runs over family of four in Brooklyn

Benny J. Stumbo

This jeep flipped over and hit a family of four during a terrible accident in Brooklyn sparked by a speeding SUV.

An out-of-control SUV driver blew a stop sign and caused a domino effect of destruction — hitting a jeep that flipped over and struck a group of pedestrians in Brooklyn this afternoon, witnesses and authorities said.

Horrified onlookers watched as Jeep hit a family of four standing on a sidewalk, leaving one member clinging to life, witnesses and authorities said.

At least four others were injured in the massive accident.

“My mother and I heard screaming and a huge explosion coming from [the street.] I immediately thought my brother could be out there,” said Diana Babbo, 18.

“I ran up the street and saw that a Jeep was flipped over. An entire family was pinned between the jeep and a parked car on the street, she said.

“A lady was completely dead or passed out. It was horrifying. An infant and two other people were under the car. It was so terrible. I’m trembling thinking about it.”

Babbo bawled as they pulled the car off the woman, she said.

“She was turning blue,” the teen recalled.

“The guy driving the Jeep had his head cracked open. He was walking towards the police after they cut him out of his car.”

The man passed out on the street, she said.

“I pray to god everybody is okay. I can’t get their faces out of my head.”

Other residents like Mohammed Umair, 17, said accidents have happened at this location many times before.

“This cross street is a death trap,” he said.

“A car smashed into a house. This isn’t going to stop until there are more lights and signs put up. More people are going to die if something isn’t done.”

cgiove@nypost.com

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Events showcase Miami’s growth as tech center

One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade the funders in the room to part with some of their green and support the tech community.

Just 24 hours later, from an elaborate “dojo stage,” a drummer warmed up the crowd of several hundred before a “Council of Elders” entered the ring to share wisdom as the all-day free event opened. Called TekFight, part education, part inspiration, and part entertainment, the tournament-style program challenged entrepreneurs to earn points to “belt up” throughout the day to meet with the “masters” of the tech community.

The two events, which kicked off Innovate MIA week, couldn’t be more different. But in their own ways, like a one-two punch, they exuded the spirit and energy growing in the startup community.

One of the goals of the TekFight event was to introduce young entrepreneurs and students to the tech community, because not everyone has found it yet and it’s hard to know where to start, said Saif Ishoof, the executive director of City Year Miami who co-founded TekFight as a personal project. And throughout the event, he and co-founder Jose Antonio Hernandez-Solaun, as well as Binsen J. Gonzalez and Jeff Goudie, wanted to find creative, engaging ways to offer participants access to some of the community’s most successful leaders.

That would include Alberto Dosal, chairman of CompuQuip Technologies; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of CareCloud; Jorge Plasencia, chairman and CEO of Republica; Jaret Davis, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig; and more than two dozen other business and community leaders who shared their war stories and offered advice. Throughout the day, the event was live-streamed on the Web, a TekFight app created by local entrepreneur and UM student Tyler McIntyre kept everyone involved in the tournament and tweets were flying — with #TekFight trending No. 1 in the Miami area for parts of the day. “Next time Art Basel will know not to try to compete with TekFight,” Ishoof quipped.

‘Miami is a hotbed’

After a pair of Chinese dragons danced through the audience, Andre J. Gudger, director for the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, entered the ring. “I’ve never experienced an event like this,” Gudger remarked. “Miami is a hotbed for technology but nobody knew it.”

Gudger shared humorous stories and practical advice on ways to get technology ideas heard at the highest levels of the federal government. “Every federal agency has a director over small business — find out who they are,” he said. He has had plenty of experience in the private sector: Gudger, who wrote his first computer program on his neighbor’s computer at the age of 12, took one of his former companies from one to 1,300 employees.

There were several rounds that pitted an entrepreneur against an investor, such as Richard Grundy, of the tech startup Flomio, vs. Jonathan Kislak, of Antares Capital, who asked Grundy, “why should I give you money?”

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Senate President Don Gaetz cancels on governor to avoid rule violation

TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott invited Senate President Don Gaetz to dinner Thursday and the senator gladly accepted, before realizing that going might violate Senate rules and the Florida Constitution.

Scott invited legislators to a holiday reception at the Mansion and Gaetz said he and his wife were invited to stay for dinner.

“They’ve asked Vicki and I to stay afterwards,” Gaetz said. “I guess he wants to talk to me.”

Scott often favors substantive discussions over small talk, and the success of his agenda in the second half of his term will depend in large part on Gaetz’s support.

Gaetz said the two men have not spoken since he became Senate president Nov. 20.

Reminded that Senate rules and the Constitution prohibit the Senate president and governor from discussing official business in private, Gaetz said: “I’ll try not to.”

But soon after,Gaetz canceled.

It may have looked like an innocent get-together at the most festive time of the year, and a spokeswoman for Scott said the event was “purely social.”

But under rules re-enacted by the Senate two weeks ago, the Senate president cannot meet privately with the governor without first issuing a four-hour notice to the public and news media.

No notice was given before Thursday’s event.

The Senate counsel, George Levesque, interprets the rule to cover social occasions between the two leaders, according to Gaetz’s spokeswoman.

“It was definitely our fault,” spokeswoman Katherine Betta said. “Next time, we will notice it.”

The Constitution contains a provision, approved by Florida voters, that says discussions of official business between the governor and Senate president or House speaker must be “reasonably open to the public.”

House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, was also invited to the reception, but said he could not attend.

Gaetz, a Niceville Republican, has set a tone different from his predecessors by calling for higher ethical standards for elected officials in Florida — especially legislators.

In his Nov. 20 acceptance speech as Senate president, he told the Senate: “You and I will be judged ... by what we do to reform the way we run elections and raise the standards of ethical conduct from the courthouse to the state house.”

Barbara Petersen of the First Amendment Foundation, a group that monitors government compliance with open meetings and public records laws, praised Gaetz for cancelling on the governor.

“I think this is the appropriate response and hopefully it sets the tone for the upcoming legislative session,” Petersen said. “Even though this meeting may have been less formal than others, clearly Sen. Gaetz takes the responsibilities of his office very seriously.”

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iPad mini fails to draw crowds for China launch

Either Apple’s (AAPL) reservation-only system works better than anyone could have expected, or consumers in China have little interest in the company’s new iPad mini. Apple’s tiny tablet launched on schedule on Friday but according to IDG News Service, the turnout for Apple’s new slate was minimal. At Apple’s new flagship store in the well-trafficked Wangfujing district in Beijing, for example, turnout was “nearly nonexistent” according to the report, with no lines forming at all on Friday.

We’ve seen Apple rack up big numbers despite small launch-day turnouts in the past, but Apple’s reservation system does not appear to be responsible for the seemingly slow launch — according to IDG, many consumers who did turn up at Apple stores looking to purchase an iPad mini were unable to do so because they weren’t even aware that the reservation-only system existed.

Apple’s iPhone 5, which will presumably draw more of a crowd, launches in China next Friday.

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Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Fergie Plays Santa Baby for Soldiers

Fergie is certainly in the holiday spirit these days – the songstress and entrepreneur hosted the Cell Phones for Soldiers Voli Light Vodka Party at the SkyBar in Hollywood Thursday night, and she shared her big holiday plans with ET.

Video: What Turns Fergie on About Husband Josh Duhamel

"My plans are to go to my mom's for Christmas, have a nice Voli cocktail and her homemade lasagna. " said Fergie with a smile. "She makes turkey lasagna with low-fat mozzarella cheese. It's still indulging a little bit, but without all the guilt."

As for her big end-of-year appearance, she says, "My plans for New Year's Eve is I will be co-hosting the Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, counting down to the New Year, to 2013. Cheers!"

As for the evening's great charity, she says, "I get to present to the troops tonight a big calling card … It's a very special hosting gig I have tonight. It means a lot. … Cell Phones for Soldiers is such an amazing organization. … [For every old or broken cell phone donated], they give minutes to the troops, so tonight we are raising at least 500,000 minutes for the troops so that the troops can call home for the holidays. It's such a great cause, and I'm just a huge supporter of our troops."

Related: Fergie's Growing Business Empire Revealed

Of course, Fergie got to celebrate with her favorite drink, the Voli Cinnamon Kiss, using the first low-calorie vodka on the market. Watch the video to see which Voli drink is hubby Josh Duhamel's favorite!

Here's the recipe for that delicious-looking Voli Cinnamon Kiss:

Voli original

sugar free cinnamon syrup

fat free half and half

mixed with ice and served in a rocks glass

with a dash of cinnamon on top.

APPROX: 95 CALORIES

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'Split right down the middle': Released juror would have acquitted Hasidic leader in underage sex trial, others torn

One of the alternate jurors released today from serving on the explosive sex trial of a prominent Hasidic leader said she would have voted to acquit — and two other dismissed jurors said they would only have voted to convict him on some of the charges.

“I didn’t have enough evidence to nail the person. No video, no DNA,” said the juror, a middle-aged black woman. “There wasn’t enough evidence for me. Both sides were a little shady.”

Nechmya Weberman, 54, allegedly forced himself on a 12-year-old Brooklyn girl for three years after she was sent to him for counseling, prosecutors charge.

Spencer Burnett

Nechemya Weberman, a prominent Hasidic leader accused of sex crimes against a 12-year-old girl, leaves Brooklyn Supreme Court today. The jury, still deliberating, is reportedly torn.

The 12-person jury who will decide his fate began deliberations today, so the five alternate jurors were released from duty.

Two other alternate jurors said they would have voted to acquit Weberman of some of the 60 counts he faces.

“I still think there is enough evidence to convict — some of the charges at least,” said a white male juror in his 30s, who said he would have voted Weberman guilty of sex abuse and child endangerment, but not on the top count of sexual conduct against a child.

Weberman could face 25 years on the top count alone.

“I don’t know what the jury’s going to do. I think they are split right down the middle. I was split down the middle as well. It’s a tough one,” the juror said. “I thought there was a lack of evidence there. At the same time the Hasidic community does hide a lot. You can see it.”

Another alternate juror said he believed Weberman did abuse the girl in his office, but would not have voted to convict on every charge.

“I think he’s guilty, but it’s a matter of what he’s guilty of,” the dismissed juror said.

Deliberations halted early at 2:30 p.m. so Weberman could head home for the Jewish Sabbath. The jury will resume deliberations Monday.

jsaul@nypost.com

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Heico increases special dividend

Technology company Heico Corp. said Thursday that it would increase a previously announced special dividend by $1 per share after an enthusiastic reaction from shareholders.

The new special cash dividend will be $2.14, combined with a regular payment of six cents per share. A single $2.20 per share amount will be paid on or before Dec. 31.

Heico moved up the date of the regular dividend, which would have typically been paid in January, and declared the special payment because of tax increases expected in 2013.

The company, which has headquarters in Miami and Hollywood, makes replacement parts for airplanes and components for the space, defense, communications, medical and computer industries.

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A Pearl Harbor veteran remembers the horror

On the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, Abe Stein, a 21-year-old solider from Wilkes Barre, Penn., was asleep in the U.S. Army’s Schofield Barracks on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

The post was established in 1908 as home to the 25th Infantry Division, assigned to protect the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.

But that day, no one could protect the ships docked there or personnel at surrounding installations from the Japanese sneak attack that took at least 2,400 American lives.

Sgt. Stein found himself running toward a base hospital, unsure what had made his bunk shake so hard that it woke him up.

“I was helping a colonel who was cursing: ‘The Japanese just bombed the hell out of us!’’ he recall today, more than seven decades later.

Stein, 92, an Aventura widower and retired hotel manager who dabbles in the travel business, says that the sights and sounds of that horrible day still haunt his memory.

“It’s like yesterday,’’ he says. “It’s not going away for me.’’

That’s both a blessing and curse for Stein: a blessing because he can speak about it as an eyewitness to history, a curse because whenever he hears “Taps,” he thinks about the dead and cries.

It’s thought that about 1,000 World War II veterans die every day, that by next year, only 1.25 million will remain, and that by 2036, all will be gone.

Pearl Harbor survivors like Stein are so rare that he believes himself one of only two left in South Florida. He belongs to the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association, which used to meet every five years in Hawaii, but hasn’t since 2006.

“We’re getting about as extinct as the dodo bird,’’ the group’s president told a New York Times reporter at the time. “The way it’s going, our next national convention here we could hold in a phone booth.’’

Stein, who attended a 50th anniversary ceremony at Pearl Harbor, also participated in the Normandy invasion, for which he’ll receive the French Legion of Honor award on Dec. 19 at The Shul of Bal Harbour, where he prays.

Abe Stein had been a high school wrestler before he enlisted in the Army on Nov. 2, 1940, 13 months before the “date which shall live in infamy,’’ as President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into the world war.

The seventh of 10 children, Stein followed a sister to Florida and signed up at a Miami recruiting office. He had his pick of posts and told the recruiter: “Hawaii looks good.’’

Had his family been able to afford it, he’d have become a doctor, Stein said. Instead, he trained in medical supply with the army, arriving at Schofield Barracks in January 1941.

He remembers sunny afternoons playing army/navy baseball during “11 months of peace.’’

The night of Dec. 6, 1941, Stein worked late.

“I was fast asleep when my bed started to shake,’’ he recalls. “Without opening my eyes I said, ‘Don’t bother me; I am off today.’ Then it shook again and I was ready to bop someone when I saw all of the soldiers running to the balcony. The clocked showed 7:55 a.m.’’

He saw fighter planes, which later strafed the barracks, but he didn’t realize they were Japanese.

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